As larger pharmaceutical companies have reduced focus on discovery and early development of antibacterials, smaller biotech companies have taken on a larger role in these earliest stages of antibacterial development, later licensing or selling the compound to the pharmaceutical company to com...
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Research on bacterial movement tends to focus on the rod-shaped bacteria. With the aid of small waving flagella, each bacterial cell can push itself in the direction it wishes to go. They can also move in groups, forming large swarms that ripple and slide their way across Petri dishes. Spherical...
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Microbial communities are essential drivers of soil functional processes such as nitrification and heterotrophic respiration. Although there is initial evidence revealing the importance of soil type in shaping microbial communities, there has been no in-depth, comprehensive survey to robustly es...
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In a basement laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, two roboticists have harnessed the innate sensing, swimming, and swarming abilities of bacteria to power microscopic robots. Even though their work sounds like the prologue to a dark science fiction film, Ph.D. students Elizabeth Beatti...
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For more than a year, Cornell University's Christopher Mason and his team of researchers have been identifying bacteria in the New York City subway system. And some of the findings might surprise you. Photo: Katie Orlinsky for The Wall Street Journal
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In honor of the Bay Area Science Festival, a group of passionate microbrewers, scientists, and yeast cultivators make 3 original brews to compete in a blind tasting at Nerd Nite in San Francisco, California.

Want to learn more about the microbes involved in brewing? Please check out the Micro...
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JMBE Profiles with Kari Wester is an interview series that highlights the volunteers that comprise the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education (JMBE) Editorial Board, the authors who contribute their work, and the education innovations that bring them together.

My undergraduate student Ruth Isenberg has made real progress adapting a GoPro camera to help us watch microbial interactions. Here are two swimming foci of Photobacterium leignothi encountering one another!
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